What Religious Liberty?
The Incredible Ever-Expanding Dead End
Anti-Cure, Anti-Life
Whose Values in
Education?
Toppling
Dominos
Anti-Christians
don't have to be Hypocrites but Many Volunteer
Intolerant Tolerance
The Emperor's
Clothes or a Cheap Tuxedo
The Myth of
Hitler's Pope, Part I
The Myth of
Hitler's Pope, Part II
Embryonic
Stem Cell Research Again
The Madness of
Secularism
"Don't Impose Your
Religion on Me"
Dictatorship of Relativism
Two Babies at Christmas
Living Will or Death
Warrant?
Court Ordered
Slow Motion Torture-Death Sentence
Men in Black
A Lot of Hot Air
The Culture War
Battles
"Stay with us, Lord"
Secular-to-English Dictionary
Moral Guidance for
Catholics in this Election
Christians
Losing America
Stem Cell Wars
Catholic
Pro-Abortion Politicians and Communion
Useful Idiots
Who Killed Jesus?
A Primer on Gay
Marriage
Whose Side are You
on?
Vouchers Revisited
Real and Fake
Cloning Bans
Broken Compasses
No Room in the Inn
Killing Fields
Revisited
Gay but not Merry
Adam and Steve?
The Battle for the Court
Victimless Crimes
More Salt, Please
The Next Big Fight
When Religion
Becomes Evil
Virginity Making a Comeback?
You've Come a Long Way,
Baby
The Incarnational
Approach
The Many Meanings of ACLU
Things Your Media Never Told
You
A Nasty Little Secret
Two Points of View on the Birth of Jesus
You Gotta Kill Them. How Else
Are They Going To Learn?
Perplexing Christmas Questions
How Do You See Christ Today?
Now that there is Another Ewe, will there be
Another You?
What is Conscience Anyhow?
Divorce of Love and Life
What Counts as a Mass?
What is a Covenant?
I Wish I had Your Faith
Are there Too Many Decrees of
Nullity?
Dutch Treats
Ecumenism
Going from Baby Doe to Granny Doe
Comments of Evangelium Vitae
The Exception Corrupts the Rule
Good Morality or
Good Medicine
Generation-X'ers Smart in Every Way But
One
A Matter of Good Breeding
Herod and Pontius Pilate at the
Polls
Hitler's Pope or Righteous Gentile?
The Unknown God
What exactly is wrong with
homosexuality?
Ideology Trumps Science, Reality,
and Common Sense
What Exactly is an Indulgence?
Infallibility and Error in the Church
Pilate Asked, "What is Truth?"
The Truth about Families
New Killing Fields
Choice of Language and Language of
Choice
A Lexicon for Our Day
Why are there so many bodies?
Marijuana, Medicine or Menace?
Medical Research and Ethics
Meditation
"You Taught me well,
Mommie dearest"
Moral Fallout
Neutral on the Wrong
Side
"These are the
Nineties After All"
Many are Wed but Few
are Married
"...Prepare him for
additional obligations"
A Useful Lie
A Partridge in a
Pear Tree
Religious Persecution in
the U.S.?
What Makes a Person a
Person?
The Point of a Point of
View
Politically Correct,
Morally Depraved
Population
Controllers out of Control
Practical Dreamers
Social Progress
through Immorality
Shall we Do Evil for
Goodness Sake?
Reason and Faith
Resurrection Glory
Same Sex Marriages?
Pearl of Great Price
"I used to be
schizophrenic, but we're all right now"
Sexual Morality
Irrelevant in Judging Public Officials?
Undesirable Side Effects
Some News is Good News
SOSSLQ's, not POSSLQ's
Spoils of Splits
Why Attend Mass
Every Sunday?
Is it All Right to Pull
the Plug?
An Appeal for Intolerance
Topics Catechetical
A Voting Catechism
A Moral Guide to
Voting
Vouchers: Has Their Time Come?
What Child is This?
What did they die of?
You are the Man
You may be a liberal
if...
Get Rid of that Worthless
Relative
Planned Un-Parenthood
Weighing Pro-Life Issues
Prior to Voting
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by Monsignor James C. Brunner |
Faith Points |
What Exactly is an Indulgence?
They never seem to get it right. An unnamed Associated Press writer in a news release concerning the recent agreement between Catholic and Lutheran theologians called an indulgence a pardon or forgiveness of sins. Wrong! One would like to think that a reporter who is doing a religious story would know how to consult a basic catechism. There is so much confusion on the subject of indulgences, let us see if we can throw some light on the subject. The subject is timely since there will be an emphasis on indulgences during the coming Holy Year which opens on Christmas Day of this year.
An indulgence is NOT a forgiveness of sins. Before one can gain an indulgence his sins must be already forgiven. Canon 992 defines an indulgence as a "remission before God of the temporal punishment for sin the guilt of which is already forgiven." The only words that might be obscure in the definition are "temporal punishment."
There are two sorts of punishments for sins, eternal and temporal. Eternal punishment is a state of alienation from God and loss of grace that will result in a permanent separation from God should a sinner die in that condition. Mortal sins bring about a complete rupture of the relationship with God while venial sins at least strain that relationship. In addition to affecting the relationship of a sinner with God sin produces some disorder. If a young boy practices carpentry by driving nails into the living room furniture his parents may eventually forgive his transgression. But even after reconciliation with his parents there are still holes in the furniture that need filling. Other sins such as murder disrupt family relationships and bring psychological and economic harm to the survivors. Drunkenness brings about bad example, frittering away of family funds, sometimes the inability to keep a job, and often results in other sins of infidelity and abuse of spouse and offspring. Sin not only disrupts the relationship with God but also introduces disorder in society. The disorder that sin causes must be compensated for and that is what gives the basis for temporal punishment due to sin. The two penalties of sin, eternal and temporal punishment, should not be understood as a form of divine vengeance but as something that flows from the nature of sin.
A biblical example that may clarify the difference between eternal and temporal punishment is that of the forgiving of the sin of adultery and murder on the part of King David. David repented of his sins and he was assured, "The Lord on his part has forgiven your sin: you shall not die. But since you have utterly spurned the Lord by this deed, the child born to you must surely die." (Cf. II Samuel 12: 13-14) This is a clear example of a punishment inflicted for a sin already forgiven. It is this punishment assessed for the harm done by sin that the Church calls temporal punishment to distinguish it from eternal punishment.
The eternal punishment for sin can be repaired by the sacrament of reconciliation and in part so can the temporal punishment due to sin be remitted in the confessional. One of the purposes of the penance that the confessor assigns is precisely to remit temporal punishment due to sin. That was the purpose of the rather stiff penalties, many of them lasting for several years, that were meted out in the early Church particularly for the three sins of apostasy (falling away from the faith), adultery which was known, and murder.
The very stiff and long penalties of the early Church occasioned the rise to what we today know as indulgences. Sometimes sinners in the middle of their penance would approach a person in custody who was going to be martyred. They would ask the martyr to offer their considerable sufferings for the remission of the sinner’s penance. If the bishop accepted that arrangement the sinner’s time of penance would be shortened (partial indulgence) or remitted altogether (plenary indulgence). The oldest indulgences in the modern sense of a remission of a certain amount of ecclesiastical punishment go back to the eleventh century. Gradually the Church began to issue indulgences as inducements to perform good works, such as works of piety, penance, and charity.
In an indulgence the Church as minister of redemption authoritatively applies the treasury of the infinite satisfaction earned by Christ and the superabundant merits earned by the saints. The treasury of Christ and the saints is an example of the doctrine of the Body of Christ in action. The Body cannot rejoice when one member suffers. If any member owes satisfaction for sins the rest of the Body can help him because the children of God are bound in and through Christ in the Body of Christ. The holiness of one member benefits the others more than the sin of one member damages the others. The Church given authority by Jesus to bind and loose uses the treasury of the merits of the saints to apply to those who do the works to which indulgences are attached.
There are many ways of gaining plenary indulgences, but the conditions are generally the same:
- Only one plenary indulgence may be gained in a day and another applicable at the moment of death.
- The required work has to be fulfilled or an approved substitute for hose persons who cannot fulfill the work because of handicaps.
- There must be sacramental confession of sins. One confession is sufficient for gaining several indulgences.
- One must receive Eucharistic communion for each indulgence gained.
- One must offer prayers for the Holy Father. At least an Our Father and Hail Mary must be said. In the case of indulgences to be gained by visiting a church as Our Father and Creed must be said.
- The person seeking to gain the indulgence must be detached from all sin, even venial, and must be in the state of grace at least at the time of the completion of the prescribed work.
